


come to town (when the party's over)

by fictorium



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Blood and Injury, F/F, Femslash, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 05:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14371464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium
Summary: For the prompt 'could you ever be happy with me?'





	come to town (when the party's over)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [caycep](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caycep/gifts).



Cat is anticipating the first ‘I miss you text’ days before it arrives. In a way, she’s impressed that Kara held out for so long. Knowing what she does, Cat doesn’t expect her former assistant to be anything but a bundle of abandonment issues, really. It’s just the clarity that comes with distance lets Cat (and her ego, architect of too many bad life decisions) see Kara’s devotion for what it always has been: an all-consuming, visible-from-space  _crush._

Only Kara doesn’t get over it with a few shots of toxic alcohol, or with a boy toy to chew up and spit out. Those have always been Cat’s preferred methods of forgetting, of moving on. She even pushes Kara into Lena Luthor’s path, carefully orchestrated via Snapper. The reports of Lena’s latent lesbianism may be more alliterative than substantive, but if it’s a CEO Kara needs to idolize, then Lena has the job title to match. 

Nothing. Just an earnest friendship. Even letting the girl buy a controlling stake in CatCo doesn’t transform her into the new object of Kara’s overabundant affections, and Lena ends up with James instead. Whether from a yurt or the White House, Cat is frustrated that her usual skill at directing people is falling short on every front. 

And still, on the rare occasions she sees Kara (more often than not as her alter ego, presumably because Kara thinks that’s the side Cat would be more likely to fall for) there’s that undercurrent of longing. The texts that trail off into ambiguous emoji, the emails attached to articles that ask a little too pointedly when Cat is next coming  _home_. 

Cat has willpower, well, more like an iron will, but even she is sorely tested by Kara’s metaphorical yellow ribbon and her relentless patience. It would be so easy to answer the unasked question, to invite Kara to a discreet hotel in DC, or simply start the conversation that would let Kara unburden herself of the torch she’s still carrying.

But there’s that ego again, because Cat can’t quite resist the notion of a gorgeous, superpowered, thoughtful twenty-six year old pining for her. 

Then the next invasion comes, levelling buildings in the nation’s capital, and damaging part of the White House itself. The president is, thankfully, out of the country. Cat hears the terrified people around her are calling for Superman, for anyone really, but when Cat looks up to see who’s lifting the rubble above their heads, she senses Kara’s presence before seeing that familiar flash of blue, red, and blonde. 

“You know,” Cat says as strong arms reach beneath her bruised and lightly bleeding legs. “Some would call this carpetbagging.”

“It’s not like Washington has many heroes of its own,” Kara points out. “It’s good to see you, Cat. I’m taking you straight to the hospital.”

“I’m fine, Kara,” she insists, breaking the unspoken arrangement without realizing. “Let a paramedic clean me up and when everyone else is safe,  _then_  you can take me home.”

It takes three hours and a lot of antiseptic wipes, but at long last Cat is welcoming Kara into her townhouse, quiet with Carter off at science camp. 

They have so much to talk about, Cat has so many reasonable objections, but coming close to death has always made her say  _fuck it_. It’s not like she can get a word in edgeways, not with Kara kissing her senseless, shedding the dusty supersuit as she guides Cat upstairs. Does Kara use x-ray vision to find the bedroom? Cat never quite gets around to asking, her torn clothing coming off all too easily under those strong hands.

It’s only afterwards, lying naked and wrapped in Kara’s arms, that Cat finally lets herself cry. She weeps for the colleagues lost and wounded, for a country shaken to its core again. She cries for the people so consumed by hate that they thought killing others would make it better somehow. Most of all, she cries in relief that this terrible day has ended with something so beautiful, has ended with Kara and all the comfort she brings. 

The doubts persist, even after being touched so reverently, after seeing how desperately Kara needed to come at Cat’s touch. The doubts have to be voiced, sooner rather than later, so not for the first time Cat speaks before thinking it all the way through.

“Could you ever be happy with me? Really, Kara? Is this just the adrenaline talking, or were you so pissed at losing me that you’re just trying to even some cosmic score?”

“Could I…?” Kara sits up, dislodging Cat from their intimate embrace. “What kind of question is that? I’m already happier, being with you like this.  _Could_  I be happy with you? All I know is I’m miserable without you, so it can only be an improvement.”

“Your crush-”

“Don’t.” Supergirl firmness as Kara closes her eyes, raising a hand for emphasis. “Don’t dismiss me like that. I’m not a  _girl_ , even if you chose that name for me. I’m not frivolous or shallow. What I feel for you, what I have felt for you for so long… a crush doesn’t even begin to cover it. What about you? Is this just to get me out of your system?”

It would be a handy line to hang it on, an easy way out. But Cat Grant hasn’t taken the easy path since it got a woman killed, almost thirty years ago. “You’re right. It’s more than that. It always has been.”

“I waited,” Kara agrees. “I know how precious time is, how wrong it is to waste even a second, and still I waited. For you.”

“Well it took leveling half a city, but you got me, Supergirl. I suppose the question is what are you going to do with me now?”

Kara waggles her eyebrows, breaking the tension as they both dissolve into helpless laughter. “I’ve got a few ideas,” Kara says around a kiss as they gather themselves, fitting back together like they were never separated in the first place. 


End file.
